You’ve probably heard about artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbots. Perhaps, you’ve used them at some point and you’ve been thinking about implementing them in your business.
Well, it might be just a good idea given over 80 percent of businesses will be using chatbots by 2020, according to Gartner. Companies like Whole Foods and Pizza Hut are already using chatbots to improve order processing and customer service.
So, whatever business you have, it’s important to give chatbot implementation a serious thought. You don’t want to be left out of the AI bandwagon when companies are already reaping the perks of a well-design chatbot strategy.
Today, RPA, NLP and the new VERSION2 of SnatchBot, are total game changers, so whatever you’ve heard about chatbots, conversion rates and other interesting tales – remember, the latest versions of bots, will certainly surprise you with their capabilities.
In this post, we’ll help you understand the role of chatbots and how they can play a great role in business growth. Read on!
What Are Chatbots Used For?
There are different use cases for bots; it all depends on what you want them to do. Your business has plenty of tasks, so is just a matter of identifying the tasks you can automate. Avi Ben-Ezra, CTO or Snatchbot, noted that bots can be used to manage routine work, respond to social communication, and even handle some personal assistant tasks.
The common use case of chatbots is customer service. Basically, there are those simple queries that don’t need human attention. Spotify and Airbnb use chatbots to provide 24/7 support on Twitter. In this case, customers don’t have to wait for days to get help.
You can implement a bot to make it easy for customers to place simple orders. For example, Domino uses a chatbot with Messenger to allow customers to order pizzas. Plus, they can also track their orders on Messenger.
If you own a retail store, you can use it to give customers product recommendations. For example, some customers shop for a product, such as shoes, but they don’t know the style and color they want. You can use a bot to give them suggestions like how H&M is doing with their Kik chatbot.
4 Ways Chatbots Can Help You Grow Your Business
These days, businesses are moving towards automation very quickly, and that’s pretty beneficial. With just a few clicks, it’s possible to automate most processes in your business. As a result, offloading them to software and machines to free up your team members for more important tasks.
So, how can AI chatbots boost your business growth? Here is what you should know.
1. Real-Time Customer Service
The success of your business largely depends on how you engage your customers. Over 70 percent of customers are unlikely to buy from your business is they feel the customer service is poor.
But chatbots are changing how businesses are approaching customer service. They provide a seamless experience across platforms, allowing marketers to deliver micro-targeted offerings. That’s what Pizza Hut is doing with bots on Facebook and Twitter.
Thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, binary conversations are things of the past. Today, chatbots offer human-like conversations and interactions and they can be given a personality to improve the overall customer experience.
2. Improved Email Conversion
Email is still one of the most effective marketing tools out there, and finding ways to integrate chatbots with it is invaluable. Over 63 percent attest that it’s difficult to generate email leads, which is a priority for over 70 percent of marketers.
With chatbots, you don’t need the lengthy signup process using forms. Over 45 percent of customer data is submitted via mobile phones, and integrating chatbots with email can make onboarding faster for your users.
You can also use chat to remind customers about unopened emails. Remind them about the subject of the email and encourage them to read the content.
3. Better Lead Generation
Up to 47 percent of the customers are willing to buy using a bot as longer it makes their life easier. In some cases, e-commerce sites with huge inventories make it difficult for customers to find what they want. Bots can help with that.
With artificial intelligence and NLP technology, bots can be effective in lead generation than human agents. They collect and store information on customers’ shopping activities. This makes it easier to identify and meet customer needs based on their past preferences.
Chatbots humanize the interactions with customers and make everything smoother. Once a relationship is built, they can ask customers if they want something else such as a newsletter or further information. This process makes generating leads easier.
4. Improved Customer Experience
Naturally, humans tend to share lots of information during interactions; whether online or offline. When collected, this data can be used to learn customer’s needs, interests and preferences thus providing a personalized customer experience.
With AI chatbots, the more they learn, the better they become in delivering customer service. A good case in point is Sephora, a multinational personal care and beauty store. The company uses an assistant bot on messaging apps Facebook Messenger and Kik to let customers try new looks. This way, customers learn how a new mascara or lipstick impacts their look.
Customers simply provide their images and the bot takes care of the rest. This experience means they don’t have to go to a physical store to try new products. As such, they can make purchasing decisions quickly right from home.
Final Thoughts
In today’s AI world, having a chatbot strategy can really grow your return on investment. However, the strategy should be justifiable; it should be able to solve the problem you created it for. This means assessing your internal processes and identifying areas where chatbot can be implemented.
Also, you need to find the right platform for building your chatbot, as noted by Avi Ben-Ezra of SnatchBot. A platform that makes chatbot integration with messaging apps and other tools easy is crucial to your business growth. Basically, you don’t have to spend time coding or hiring a coder.
With that in mind, using chatbots the right way can streamline your processes, cut costs, improve customer service, and consequently, grow your business.
Resources worth checking out:
The new VERSION2 of Snatcbot has been launched
A huge advantage is the ability to see how the WebChat widget, and all the advanced customizations included, will look live before publishing with the help of test chat.
What you should know about Messanger Chatbots
A must read for marketing technology firms (Avi Benezra)
Why AI and chatbots need personality
Interesting scoop by Forbes
The healthcare sector advances thanks to AI
